


touch me like you do

by evilythedwarf



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 21:52:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7658008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evilythedwarf/pseuds/evilythedwarf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Why on earth did you think this was a good idea? There’s a reason you haven’t seen her in years, a reason you’ve kept yourself far away from her, and it’s not only that you’re unwilling to own up to your mistakes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	touch me like you do

**Author's Note:**

> From the tumblr prompt: "40. exes meeting again after not speaking for years au. Dragon Queen! please and thank you! :)"

You have to clench your fists not to reach up and run your fingers through your hair, and you avoid the mirror on the far side of the room, because you don’t want to catch your reflection. You’re not usually this self-conscious, you’re rather confident in your looks, in fact, but it’s been five years and you’d be lying if you said you’re not worried.

She’s not late, you’re rather early, but you couldn’t stand around your home anymore, waiting for the proper time to leave, waiting to see her again.

What have you gotten yourself into? Why on earth did you think this was a good idea? There’s a reason you haven’t seen her in years, a reason you’ve kept yourself far away from her, and it’s not only that you’re unwilling to own up to your mistakes.

It’s seven already and she should be here any second now. If she is still the same, if she’s still the person you remember, then she has a somewhat fluid sense of time as it is, but she was never, not once, late to meeting you.

You stare down at your drink, the amber liquid swirling in the glass, and you wish you could stand up and leave, walk away, because as much as you don’t want to be here, you want to see her that much more.

You don’t look up when you hear her come near, and you know it’s her, even though it’s been so long, her steps, the clipping rhythm of her heels hitting the floor, it’s the same. She sits down in front of you, and you still don’t look up, because she’s there, and you could raise your hand and reach, and you could touch her, if only you tried.

She waits. She always could outwait you.

Finally you look up, because your drink sure as hell doesn’t have any answers for you, and she’s smiling at you, her lips are red, vibrant, and open in a wide smile.

“Hello, Regina.”

“Mal.”

You lapse into silence, and while it’s heavy with all the things you haven’t told each other in so long, it’s also comforting in its familiarity. Five years don’t seem like such a long time, all of a sudden.

“When is the wedding?” you ask, when your need to hear her voice outweighs the desire to prolong this encounter for as long as it will last. She smirks, rolling her eyes.

“May.”

Two months away, still. Two whole months.

You won’t make it. You simply won’t. Seeing her, talking to her, being near her for over 60 days, having her hear and knowing that nothing can come off of it? You can’t.

“I’m sorry,” you say, raising from your seat. “I can’t. I’ll call Ursula. I’ll tell her I can’t do it.”

“Regina.”

“I can’t be in the wedding.”

“Regina.”

“I can’t, Mal.”

You walk away, or rather you start to, but you have to go by her and her hand wraps around your wrist.

“Regina. I’m sorry.”

You look down at her, and she’s, well, she looks genuine, and she looks like she believes it, but it doesn’t make sense, she’s not, it wasn’t her. It was never her.

“I should have fought harder,” she says. “For you.”

She lets go of your hand, and her eyes focus on a spot on the table, and you could keep on walking, take another step, and another, and leave the restaurant, and leave tonight and pretend it never happened, and try and forget about her all over again. You could so easily walk away.

But you don’t.


End file.
